<t> Adding onto that list of suggestions:<br/>
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* Water tiles are useless for cities, and need to be fixed. Since sea tiles have neither researched upgrades nor improvements, a single land tile can be worth as many as three or four sea tiles by late game. I actually go out of my way to avoid ...

<t> I've tried installing the game on my work laptop and it works. My laptop uses the same Windows OS, same firewall/antivirus (ZoneAlarm) and other periphery programs. The main difference is the hardware; my laptop has a different manufacturer, video card, etc.<br/>
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I'm not a professional ...

<r>
<QUOTE><s>[quote]</s>ORIGINAL: Gloo<br/>
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Thanks to you all for your patience and interest but I give up for now. I'm sorry but the last tip for removing my anti virus is one step too far for my taste [;)] I've run hundreds of games for years without problems, with various anti virus ...

Yes, I've tried both the beta and release versions (1.0.3 and 1.0.0). I'm using ZoneAlarm for antivirus/firewall, not Avast. Dxdiag report attached below.

<r> Also get an error when trying to launch a new game. I have fully updated my graphics drivers, and have tried disabling anti-virus/firewall, all to no avail. I am running Windows 7 Home Edition 32-bit, and am using an AMD Radeon HD 5900 series video card, if that helps. I've also tried both the ...

<t> 3) If #2 is true, is there any reason to colonize a <50% quality planet other than establishing system sovereignty? Should I just not bother colonizing <50% planets in systems I already control? <br/>
I do it for resources, if I really need them <br/>
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Couldn't you get higher yields by ...

<t> Really? Well that frees up a few hundred units of space I can fill with more shielding. Yay.<br/>
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Now I have some new questions, this time about taxation:<br/>
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The manual claims that colony income is just (population) x (planet quality), but there must be some other factors at ...

<r>
<QUOTE><s>[quote]</s>ORIGINAL: cookie monster<br/>
Interesting... Never really thought about them having 50% income leftover.<br/>
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The problem with fuel logistics is the player can control his fuel stores but what the AI has in it's colonies/space ports is a different matter. If they ...

<t> Ran some tests. In a nutshell: don't worry. (For me, at least) ship maintenance accounted for only about 7% of expenditures for the private sector, when giving everything a few shields and a weapon. You could probably arm them to the teeth for no more than 20% expenditure -- which sounds like a ...

<t> So I'm curious: has anyone attempted or successfully pulled off using a natural hazard (supernova, black holes, etc) in a military situation? <br/>
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One idea I've always wanted to try placing a star base with a gravity well projector beside a black hole, and pull an enemy fleet out of ...

<t> The way the AI works, when a fleet refuels it (typically) always goes for the same refueling station. Usually the closest one, or the home space port. Which means having many, small, low-yield gas mining bases is counter-productive to fleet refueling, as compared to a few, massive gas extractors ...

<t> I had always thought more maintenance costs for private sector meant less money for them to invest, hence less money/transactions for you to tax. At the end of the day, that still means you're paying maintenance indirectly, as higher maintenance still reduces your revenue stream. Isn't that the ...

Good point. Especially since the AI may not have the predictive capability that humans when calculating where raids are likely to occur.

<t> Another tip I've found is adding more docking ports. When I have a 50-ship fleet it used to take AGES to get them all fueled up using the default 4-dock gas extractor design. So I doubled their cargo, quintupled the number of gas extractors, and gave them 30 docks each. Now I can refuel an ...

<t> Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but as to the slow loading and high RAM requirements: After having played douzens of 4X games, I can say Distant Worlds is the only one that comes to mind that plays out totally in real-time. Nearly all others do not: Civilization, Galactic Civ, Total War ...

<t> Thanks, guys. It's good to get my fangs back in a good open-ended 4X game. Sadly they seem to be less popular nowadays due to their niche appeal, but anyways, another question:<br/>
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Is there any particular reason I should favor many low-yield mining stations (as the AI seems to) as ...

<r> I've been playing DW for the last few days, and some questions came up that I could not find the answers too via Google or manual browsing. I'm hoping some of you DW veterans can answer these.<br/>
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1) What do the % values beside resource icons represent in the planetary details window? I ...